Taro Aso

Taro Aso (20 September 1940-) was Prime Minister of Japan from 24 September 2008 to 16 September 2009, succeeding Yasuo Fukuda and preceding Yukio Hatoyama. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister from 26 December 2012, succeeding Katsuya Okada. Aso was a member of the Jiminto (LDP) party.

Biography
Taro Aso was born in Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan in 1940, the maternal grandson of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida. Aso graduated from Gakushuin University and the London School of Economics, and he worked for a diamond mining operation in Sierra Leone for two years before the outbreak of the 1968 Sergeants' Coup forced him to return home. From 1973 to 1979, he served as President of the Aso Mining Company, and he was elected to the National Diet in 1979 as a Jiminto member. In 2003, he joined Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, and he became Foreign Minister in 2005. In 2006, he lost the party leadership election to Shinzo Abe, but Yasuo Fukuda made him Secretary-General in 2008, giving him a vehicle from which he could succeed Fukuda after his 2008 resignation. Aso became Prime Minister in September 2008, but his defeat in the 2009 election led to Yukio Hatoyama become the new Prime Minister. Aso would later make a comeback as Abe's Deputy Prime Minister after 2012.